Hunted (The Tinder Chronicles)

by Land, Alexa

“Drinking my blood was the first clue.”

  “Most people have no idea, though. They just think it’s some kinky sex thing.”

  “I’m a hunter, Ty. You brought a vampire hunter home with you.”

  “Oh God,” he murmured, his eyes going wide and fearful.

  I stared at him for several moments, then blurted, stalling for time, “The thing I don’t get is why you didn’t try to compel me. It wouldn’t have worked on me, but it’s weird that you didn’t even try.”

  “I don’t compel people. It seems really unfair.”

  “It…wait, what?”

  “Well, if I compelled someone, then they really wouldn’t have a choice about feeding me. That’s not right.”

  I had been crouched down in a defensive position, but I straightened up a bit now and said, “Wow. You’re really bad at being a vampire.”

  “No, I’m really good at it. I’ve never killed anyone, and never had to compel anyone, either. Granted, I’ve only been on my own for four months, but I’m really proud of how well I’ve managed to survive.”

  “What’s with living in squalor? Not to give you pointers or anything, but you understand that you can have anything you want, right? Most vamps compel humans to give them all kinds of things – cash, cars, houses.”

  “This is all I can afford. And obviously, I’m perfectly safe here.” Well, he did have a point there, since it turned out the cute little kitten was actually the most deadly predator on the block. “Like I said, I’m not about to compel people.”

  “Who the hell sired you, Gandhi?”

  He smiled sadly. “Not quite. My maker was a wonderful person, though. I miss him so much.”

  “You know there were no vamps at that bar, right? At least, not until you showed up. If you were looking for someone to take the place of your maker, you weren’t going to find him there.” I was still stalling, because I somehow just couldn’t make myself kill this guy. At least, not until he gave me a reason to.

  Ty brought his feet up onto the mattress and hugged his knees to his chest. “I don’t care if my new master is a vampire or a human. I just want someone who’ll feed me and take care of me.” He met my gaze and watched me for a few moments, then asked, “Are you really a vampire hunter?”

  “Uh, yeah. Is the wooden stake not a tip-off?”

  “If you’re a hunter, why haven’t you tried to kill me yet?”

  “I really don’t know.”

  He sighed and said, “Well, if I had to be stupid enough to bring a hunter home, I’m lucky that it was you, and not the monster that killed Calvin. Otherwise, I’d be dead already.”

  “Who’s Calvin?”

  “My maker.”

  “Ah.”

  “That hunter literally gives me nightmares,” Ty said with a little shiver. “A friend of mine happened to be watching from a window when Calvin was killed. He said this guy stabbed my maker in cold blood, when all Cal was doing was coming home from the library.”

  A fragment of a memory pushed its way into my consciousness, a dark side street, books spilling across the sidewalk…. Despite myself, I asked, “Do you know the name of that hunter?”

  “Yeah. His name’s Tinder. Have you heard of him?” I nodded, something cold and heavy settling in my stomach. “He’s like the angel of death among my people,” Ty continued. “You never know when he’s going to strike, and he’s completely merciless. If he finds you, you die. So see, that’s why I want to find a master and just drink from him. I won’t have to go out at night to feed, not when Tinder’s out there somewhere.”

  Christ, he made me sound like the boogeyman. And why was this all so upsetting to me? I should be thrilled that my name struck fear in the hearts of bloodsuckers. “If I try to leave,” I said, “are you going to stop me?”

  “No. I would never hurt you, Tyler. I promise.”

  “Back away from the door. Go over to that far corner,” I said, raising both my weapons a little higher and gesturing with my chin.

  He did as I asked immediately, then said, “I’m really sorry I scared you, especially after you were so nice to me tonight.”

  I didn’t reply. I just bolted from the apartment and out of the building, absolutely expecting Ty to come after me and attack me. But it didn’t happen.

  Surprisingly, the rental car was still parked at the curb. It was so boring that not even criminals wanted it. As I got behind the wheel and tried to find my way back to the freeway, I kept thinking about Ty. I felt like I’d orphaned him. It was insane that I actually felt guilty for ending his maker. If I was going to feel guilty about something, it should be for not finding and killing Calvin sooner. Then he never would’ve turned that sweet, beautiful boy into a monster.

  “Oh shit,” I muttered all of a sudden, pulling the rental car to a screeching halt at the curb. I leapt out and grabbed my big crossbow and a gun from the trunk, then took off at a run, backtracking half a block. I’d forgotten to disengage my second sight after leaving Ty’s apartment, and a glimmer of white had caught my eye.

  I skidded to a halt at the mouth of a dark alley, and found a vampire in mid-feed. Without a moment’s hesitation, I raised the crossbow and fired, even though I knew I couldn’t hit the vamp’s heart from this angle. She let out a demonic shriek and dropped her victim, immediately whirling on me with a murderous look in her eyes. The vamp charged me as I flipped over the double-sided crossbow and fired again. The second narrow wooden spike found its target, and she broke apart into a million tiny flecks of nothingness, just inches in front of me.

  Now that the vamp (and the light she’d radiated thanks to my second sight) was no more, the alley was really dark. I pulled a silver lighter from my pocket and flicked it on, then went to take a look behind the dumpster. Man, how many times had I found myself in exactly this situation, in an alley just like this one? The sights, the smells, the circumstances were always the same. It felt like alleys only existed to host grisly murders like the one at my feet.

  I crouched down and took a good look at the victim. The homeless man was quite obviously dead, his throat slit ear to ear so it would look like a random street crime and not a vampire feeding. The man’s empty, staring eyes looked almost white in the flame from my lighter, cataracts probably having robbed him of most, or maybe all, of his sight. He must have struggled to survive on the rough streets of L.A., only to finally wind up as a meal for a monster.

  I sighed and stood up. I’d failed this man, because I hadn’t gotten here in time to save his life. But at least the bloodsucker that murdered him would never find another victim.

  And damn it, see? That was why I hunted. I’d let that little blond vamp get under my skin, let myself start to question my job as a hunter. Well, screw that. Just because I’d found a couple anomalies lately, vamps that managed not to kill, that wasn’t how the world really worked. This was. How could I feel bad about hunting monsters that did things like this?

  I trudged back down the street, feeling incredibly weary and not looking forward to the long drive home. Along the way, I contemplated the fact that not so long ago, I often went two, three weeks without encountering so much as a single vampire. Lately though, I’d been finding several a week. I didn’t try to kid myself and attribute this to my awesome hunting ability. The vamps were increasing in number for some reason. I wondered how far this trend extended, if it was just Southern California, or all of the U.S., or hell, everywhere.

  Ty remained on my mind as I drove home. I had a feeling the baby vamp and I would cross paths again someday. I’d probably wind up regretting the decision not to end him tonight. It might even cost me my life.

  Chapter Three

  With every part I pulled out of my car, I got more and more annoyed.

  My Camaro was parked in the narrow garage attached to my house. In order to get it in there, I’d first had to drag all the landlord’s weird crap out into the backyard (he had fourteen barbecue grills hoarded up in there. Fourteen. WTF?). Over the last few da
ys, I’d been systematically dismantling the Chevy, laying out all the pieces on a blue tarp. It was hot and cramped in the little garage, but I couldn’t work in the driveway. In this neighborhood, all the parts would get stolen the moment my back was turned.

  I was doing this because I’d recently learned that Bane had installed a tracking device in my car. I’d gone out and bought a machine that was supposed to scan for trackers and other bugs, but nothing had shown up. I knew the tracker was in there somewhere though, so I proceeded to do this the old-fashioned, long, boring, stupid way.

  So far, I’d found not one, not two, but three tracking devices. Seriously?

  I’d almost stopped after I found the first one. But then, on a hunch I kept looking. I almost expected the second one. But a third tracker? Come on! Overkill much? Since I still didn’t believe I’d found all of them, I kept going, taking apart the entire car piece by piece. God damn Bane and his insane notion that he needed to keep an eye on me!

  I was bent over the front fender of my car, partially embedded in the engine compartment, when my roommate murmured in his Texas drawl, “Well, shit. Don’t you look good enough to eat.” After a moment, I felt Lee’s hand cupping my butt. “Why don’t you take a break, Tinder? You been at this for hours.” By take a break, he of course meant wanna screw?

  “I’m covered in oil,” I pointed out, resting my elbows on the fender and glancing at him over my shoulder. Lee was a good-looking guy, tall and broad-shouldered, his sandy blond hair still a bit damp and spiky from a recent shower. “I can’t take a break now, because I’d have to spend forever washing up, and then come right back here and get dirty all over again.”

  “You can just stay dirty,” Lee said, sliding his hands around my hips and rubbing his hard-on against my ass through our jeans. My dick immediately responded. “You don’t even have to change position. Just let me do everything.”

  “Well, I suppose I could use a break….”

  That was all the green-light Lee needed. He immediately reached around and unbuttoned my Levis, pushing them down before dropping his own jeans.

  He had lube and a condom in the pocket of his t-shirt, and he squirted the cool liquid between my cheeks before working some into me with two fingers. I relaxed and spread my legs as wide as I could with the denim around my knees, and sighed with pleasure. Lee was doing more than just prepping me. He was finger-fucking me roughly, just how I liked it, and I moaned and started rocking back onto his hand.

  By the time he mounted me I was fully aroused, my cock leaking precum. I didn’t always try to reach orgasm while being fucked, but this time I wanted release. Since I couldn’t use my oil-covered hands, I ground out, “Stroke me,” as Lee thrust into me, and his big hand wrapped around my cock. He established a steady rhythm as he jerked me off and pounded me, and minutes later I was painting the side of my car.

  Lee wasn’t quite there yet and grasped my hips, his body slapping my ass as he took me. I grabbed onto the front of the car, bracing myself, then yelled, “Son of a bitch!” I pulled out a little black tracking device that had been tucked up under the lip of the engine compartment and yelled, “Four? Are you kidding me?”

  Lee laughed at that, not interrupting his thrusts into me, and came a minute later, yelling, “Oh shit,” as he shot his load. He kept going until he was totally satiated, then eased out of me carefully. He pulled my pants back up and buttoned them, then gave my ass a playful slap.

  “You know,” he said as he tossed the condom and got dressed, “Bane’s probably just gonna install new trackers the very first time you park your car in public.”

  “I know. But I still feel like I have to do this.”

  “You gotta wonder ‘bout the level of obsession that’d drive someone to install so many devices in one car.”

  “Bane’s not obsessed. He’s just an asshole that enjoys messing with me.” I threw the latest tracker onto the growing pile in the corner and picked up my wrench, but then Lee startled me by taking me in his arms and kissing me, long and deep. “Damn it, Lee, what the hell are you doing?” I muttered against his lips.

  He pulled back a couple inches and said, “I’m kissin’ you, Tinder. That’s what normal people do when they screw.” His brown eyes sparkled with amusement and he swooped in and kissed me again, parting my lips with his tongue, pulling me against his broad chest. What he was doing actually felt really good, and I dropped the wrench noisily onto the concrete floor and grabbed his ass with both hands.

  “That’s better,” he murmured before running a line of kisses along my jaw.

  “Lee,” I said, my voice a bit rough as he licked my earlobe, “I hope you’re not getting the wrong impression about what’s going on between us. You and I are just fuck buddies. You know that, right?”

  “We’re more than that, Tinder.” He twined his fingers in my dark hair and kissed my neck.

  “See?” I pulled back from him as much as I could with the car right behind me. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about.”

  He knit his brows and took a step back from me. “What’s so wrong with this bein’ more than just sex?”

  “It’s not what I want, you know that. I’ve been up front with you this whole time, perfectly clear that this was sex only. Can we please not complicate it?”

  “Sometimes I just don’t get you, Tinder,” he said as he turned from me and headed back into the kitchen. There were two clearly defined handprints on the seat of his jeans, and when I pointed this out to him, he called over his shoulder, “Good. I’m fixin’ to leave ‘em there as a reminder.”

  “A reminder of what?”

  “A reminder that this is already more than just sex!” He disappeared into the house as I sighed dramatically.

  My life used to be really straightforward. I just ate and slept and hunted. Occasionally, I had sex with someone I didn’t know. Oh, and sometimes, I’d go see a movie. That was about it.

  Until recently, I’d also been completely alone. After the last member of my family died about three years ago, I’d gotten used to solitude. Now that there were a few people in my life, things had gotten so damn complicated.

  I drove the rental car to the Port of Long Beach later that night. Lee had suggested we hunt as a team, but I pointed out that we’d cover more ground separately. Really though, this was just a continuation of our earlier discussion. It felt like he and I were becoming joined at the hip (ok, not the hip, exactly…). It was nice having him as a roommate, and the sex on demand was an awesome perk, but clearly he was starting to think of us as a couple. The word ‘we’ appeared in his vocabulary way the hell too often.

  And he’d really been making himself at home in the few short days we’d been roommates. Not that there was anything wrong with that. But every time I turned around, there was a new piece of furniture or some miscellaneous item that he’d dragged in off the street. This was weird to me. Since a hunter might have to pack up and move at a moment’s notice, my family never owned more than would fit in the trunk of our car.

  I’d mentioned this to Lee, but he’d just shrugged and said, “If we have to leave suddenly, this can all just stay here. It’s not like I’ll be out anything.” Ok, he kind of had a point. Lee was perpetually broke and a world-class dumpster diver, he wasn’t spending money on any of this stuff.

  I was trying to do something about his financial situation, and had sent a note to my benefactor asking if funds were available for him. I was still waiting to hear back. The war on vampires had traditionally been funded by behind-the-scenes networks that raised money to support those of us that hunted. But Lee had stopped getting financial assistance a few years ago.

  His theory was that because of budget cuts, only full-blooded hunters were getting money these days, since I was still receiving checks. I was one of less than a dozen full-bloods in the state of California, while Lee was only half. That meant both of my parents had been true hunters, born with the ability to recognize vampires at a glance, and only on
e of Lee’s parents had been, so his second sight was a lot weaker than mine. His theory made sense. We were only guessing though, because the benefactors never actually bothered telling us what was going on.

  Eventually, I pulled to the curb and parked. Though the warehouses down by the waterfront were really busy during the day, at night they were dark and still. I got out of the car, picked a direction at random and started walking. Normally, this wouldn’t be my first choice of hunting grounds. But after stumbling across that mysterious warehouse with a bunch of vamps on the premises, I kept coming back here. I thought there was a chance the vamps might take over another warehouse, since they’d abandoned that first one.

  After wandering the entire warehouse district twice over the course of a couple hours, I was bored out of my mind. This was pointless. Nothing was going on down here, nothing at all. I gave up and headed in the direction of my car, my hunter’s sight still engaged.

  Suddenly, I got one of those feelings, the hair on the back of my neck bristling. I looked all around me, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Impulsively, I climbed a rusty fire escape at the back of a condemned brick building. If there were any vamps in the area, maybe I could spot them from a higher vantage point. I picked my way across the torn-up asphalt tiles and peered over the edge of the roof.

  My adrenaline spiked instantly. Moving this way from three directions were half a dozen vampires. They were lit up in the darkness, converging like planes on a collision course on an air traffic controller’s screen.

  I ducked down quickly, wondering if they’d seen me, then ventured a glance over the short retaining wall at the edge of the roof. Dread bloomed cold inside me. They were headed right for this building. And all of a sudden, I realized what was happening.

  They were hunting me.

  There was no way to get inside this building from the roof, so I sprinted back to the fire escape. Two vamps were already halfway up it. I drew a big stake and a gun and fired a couple shots at them, but the vamp in the lead had thought to pick up a metal trash can lid, and was using it like a shield to deflect my shots. I frowned at that and whirled around, frantically assessing my situation.